At Brentford, the people rose up against the Jews, and robbed them of whatever goods they could lay their hands upon. On this occasion, forty-five of the principal actors in the outrage were apprehended by the authorities of the place. The whole of these were, however, shortly after liberated, upon the intervention of the Bishop of Lincoln, because it was maintained that no man could impeach them of any crime or breach of the peace. After the battle of Eversham, when the rebel barons had assembled an army in the eastern counties, they marched a part of their forces to Lincoln, broke into the houses of the Jews, and plundered them of their wealth; then making an excursion to Cambridge, they committed a similar outrage, and carrying away with them the richest of the Jews, forced them to pay heavy ransoms for their liberation. These and many other acts of oppression and cruelty were inflicted upon the Jews by the populace. The conduct of the people was the natural result of the unrestrained extortions practised by the crown. The daily occurrence of these extortions led the populace to regard the Jews as persons who were not within the usual protection of the law, and they therefore considered it no crime to enrich themselves at the expense of those unfortunate people. But though the king did not hesitate to oppress the Jews himself, yet he had good reasons for shielding them against the violence and extortions of his subjects. He considered the Jews and all they possessed as his own peculiar property, and he consequently looked upon every act by which they were impoverished, as withdrawing so much from his own wealth. Measures were therefore taken to prevent a continuance of the outrages of the people; and directions were issued to twenty-six of the principal inhabitants of the towns where the Jews resided,¹ to protect them from any further acts of violence, under heavy penalties for disobedience.² ¹ Dr. Jost observes, how great must their danger have been, since twenty-six burgesses in each town were necessary to protect them. ² See Appendix S.